People act like Swain County Commissioner David Monteith is from outer space. He proposed using North Shore Road settlement funds to give everybody in the county a year without paying property taxes and give county employees a 3% pay raise. Critics think it insane to appropriate principal from the $52 million awarded from the federal government as compensation for flooding a road to create Lake Fontana in 1943. Appropriating principal would require a favorable vote from 2/3 of registered voters. Monteith is viewed as trying to garner votes with empty promises because “nobody” expects 2/3 of voters to show up to the polls; and if they did, they would most certainly vote in defense of maintaining principal rather than sparing themselves property taxes.